There are a number of inventory management and distribution systems, or global distribution systems, which have been generally adopted by the various product and service industries as standards for providing rate negotiation and/or distribution services to participating customers. For example, in the travel industry there have been a limited number of primary computer based global distribution systems, such as, Sabre, Apollo-Galileo, Amadeus, and Worldspan. While variations exist between the major global distribution systems used within the travel industry, the underlying concept is generally the same in that a global distribution system provides travel agents, corporate travel clients, and in some cases, individual customers, with direct access to travel service provider rates and booking tools. The travel and lodging industry has long relied on travel agents (also known as brokers) to direct customers to their services. The Internet has changed the travel industry by providing a direct channel between the travel services provider and the customer. However, travel agents are still utilized in large part by corporate travelers and those preferring the services of a professional travel agent to ensure that their vacation or business travel is planed thoroughly and that they are receiving the lowest possible rates.
In general, a global distribution system (or a related system) provides brokers with information to help negotiate discounts on behalf of their customers and with travel service providers with whom they would like to conduct business. A global distribution system provides a travel service provider a means to attract repeat business from clients in return for a discounted rate. When a rate is negotiated, it may be the responsibility of the travel service provider to enter the rate data into the global distribution system and/or a computer reservation system.
Due to human error, possible computer errors, and various other reasons, rate data is often not entered correctly or is not properly recorded within a global distribution system itself. As a result, customers may not receive benefit from negotiated discount rates. One limited solution to ensure that rate data has been entered and recorded correctly involves the use of “screen-scraping,” in which a rate request is sent to a global distribution system in the form of a data screen request that specifies the location (such as the column and the row) in which the rate is expected to be displayed via the global distribution system's data screen.